Global Actions: Commitments to Reduce Harmful Drinking. May 29, 2013

 

 

 

Global Actions in Focus

Initiatives reporting

The website, Initiatives Reporting: Industry Actions to Reduce Harmful Drinking, is a searchable database of industry-sponsored initiatives and partnerships to reduce harmful drinking that offers a collective look at initiatives developed in partnership with governments, civil society, public health, and other stakeholders worldwide.

Recent reported initiatives include:

· Bacardi Server Training: Bacardi-Martini trains and educates servers in Hungary on responsible serving. Establishments are given training manuals that outline responsible drinking, unit awareness, and the role of the server.

· The ABC of Alcohol and Health: Since January 1996, Kirin Brewery has distributed booklets to discourage harmful drinking and provide information on the benefits of moderate drinking. Each year the booklets are circulated at events sponsored by approximately 800 local governments. By 2011, 6.83 million booklets had been distributed.

· Beber con Moderación: The Beber con Moderación (BCM) initiative was launched in 2007, and in 2009 Pernod Ricard Argentina committed to evolving the program into a long term initiative. BCM aims to raise awareness, knowledge, and skills and enable employees, their families, and the communities to make informed choices about personal drinking habits.

· +18=Responsible Sales: Anheuser-Busch InBev launched a campaign that promotes responsible drinking habits and raises awareness about the importance of servers and retailers not selling beverage alcohol to youth in Uruguay. Employees visit outlets while wearing shirts and badges and hand out brochures and stickers that state “We do not sell alcohol to minors. +18 = Responsible Sales” and “I request ID, I am responsible.” Since May 2012, employees have visited over 20,000 establishments.

ICAP has collaborated with several alcohol producers to prepare a report on a number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in India. The report provides summaries of CSR initiatives that have been implemented in villages, cities, and states throughout the country on alcohol-related issues, such as drink driving, responsible drinking, social development, and health issues.

Companies featured in the report include Diageo, SABMiller, Moët Hennessy, UB Group, and Pernod Ricard. Their initiatives include Diageo’s “Delhi 4 Responsible Drinking” campaign, SABMiller India’s “Respect the Road—Don’t Drink and Drive” project, Moët Hennessy India’s partnership with Aseema to provide high quality education to neglected youth in Mumbai, UB Group’s “Project Jeevan Dhara” to deliver potable water to villagers during harsh summers, and Pernod Ricard’s “Netra Raksha, Parivar Suraksha” initiative to offer eye screenings and health camps for truck drivers in Gurgaon, Behror, and Dera Bassi.

Key Recent Milestones

· Mexico: A Memorandum of Understanding to implement “Towards Zero Deaths for Drinking and Driving in Puebla” was recently signed by the Secretary of the Interior Luis Maldonado Venegas, Secretary of Public Education Jorge Alberto Lozoya Legorreta, and other officials including ICAP President Marcus Grant. The program is intended to reach the large youth population in Puebla and increase knowledge and awareness about the risks of drinking and driving.

What's Happening Next

· USA: ICAP Senior Vice President Brett Bivans will be attending the ICC Commission Meeting in New York on June 3 and 4, 2013. Attendees will discuss a proposed draft for an ICC Framework for Responsible Marketing Communications of Alcohol, which is based on ICAP’s Guiding Principles and the Beer, Wine and Spirits Producers’ Commitments.